Biography of The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground is the most influential '60s rock band that didn't sell any records to speak of. Completely unfashionable in its day, the group's interest in risque lyric subjects and often abrasive, simply played rock foreshadowed the punk movement of the late '70s and much of the best rock music of the last 20 years.The Velvet Underground was formed in 1965 by guitarist/singer Lou Reed (b.Mar 2, 1943), an aspiring songwriter who had studied with poet Delmore Schwartz, and violist John Cale (b.Dec 4, 1940), a Welsh-born, classically trained musician who was in New York on a scholarship to study with composer La Monte Young. The band was completed by bassist Sterling Morrison and drummer Maureen Tucker. It debuted in November 1965 and came to the attention of artist Andy Warhol, who added German-born singer Nico and used the group as the musical accompaniment to his multimedia show the Exploding Plastic Inevitable.The group scored a record contract with MGM in 1966 and issued its debut album in 1967, its songs, which treated such subjects as heroin and sado-masochism, mostly written by Reed. In 1987, it was listed at Number 21 in Rolling Stone magazine's ranking of the 100 best albums of the period 1967-1987, and its sales were estimated at 400,000, by far the highest of any of The Velvets' albums. Two other Velvet Underground albums also made the list. In 1967, the album got to #171 in the charts.By the time of the second album, White Light/White Heat (1967), Nico and Warhol were gone, and the band had veered toward harder rock. Cale had departed by the time the third album, The Velvet Underground (1969), came out. The group carried on into 1970, recording Loaded, but Reed had left before it was released, and a version of the band without any of the original members toured for a while in the early '70s. The band's ongoing influence has led to a continuing series of reissues and releases of live and studio outtake material. ~ William Ruhlmann